An Information Portal for the Research in Nature Reserves: The UNESCO MaB Biosphere Reserve Bliesgau

Abstract

Biosphere reserves have three main objectives: conserving biological and cultural diversity; providing models of land management and experimental sites for sustainable development, and serving as sites for research, environmental monitoring, education and training. In order to ensure a longterm and a central and efficient access to the literature and data on such a nature reserve for all scientists from the respective institutions, a research information portal was established. Based on a user requirements analysis, a client-server architecture using open source components was set up. Core modules are a metadata-management component and a map service. Beside the own data, the system is interfacing external data sources (e.g. semantic network service, PortalU-SL, geoportal-SL) using standardized protocols to optimize the information retrieval. The goal is to avoid expensive, redundant data acquisition as well as time-consuming information retrieval for the individual research teams. Furthermore, research becomes more transparent, thus allowing better use of possible synergy effects.